SES was established in 1963 as a platform to promote research and innovation at the confluence of engineering, science, and mathematics and to communicate fundamental knowledge across these disciplines. This visionary outlook of SES’s founders, six decades ago, could not be more relevant today as the grand challenges that confront humanity have become ever more increasingly complex and interdependent. The need for a sustainable habitat, the effects of climate change on environment, the ever-increasing demand for energy, the need for technological breakthroughs for sustaining the quality of life, all require cross-disciplinary solutions that span across traditional domain boundaries in science and engineering. These challenges highlight the importance of generating, understanding, and communicating fundamental knowledge across the various fields, and underscore an urgency to devise long-term solutions for a sustainable future that respects our planet.

In 2022, SES returned to the in-person format for the technical meetings and the 59^th Annual Technical Meeting of SES was held in College Station, Texas, USA, October 16-19, 2022. Under the organizational leadership of Dimitris Lagoudas, Ankit Srivastava, and Matt Pharr, this meeting crossed the milestone of over 1000 registered participants from around the world. The 60^th SES conference is scheduled to take place from October 8-11, 2023, at Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. It is being hosted by the University of Minnesota and led by Jia-Liang Le and Stefano Gonella.

Looking forward, SES will continue its tradition of promoting rigorous scientific ideas by bringing together scientists, engineers, theoreticians, and experimentalists to push the frontiers of science and engineering, and to contribute to the building of our shared future. It will facilitate catalyzing new interactions in our ever-growing, multi- and cross-disciplinary community for exploring porous disciplinary boundaries and sharing our discoveries to address the core issues of our changing world’s needs.

I am honored to serve as the 2023 SES President and work with you to create opportunities to strengthen our Society and our community in new ways that are effective, engaging, and enjoyable. Together, we will continue to strive for an environment that cherishes the plurality of our research fields while welcoming and promoting a dynamic, engaged, diverse, and inclusive community. 

Warm Regards,

Arif Masud

President of SES

John and Eileen Blumenschein Professor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA